Jon Snow vs Daenerys Targaryen: How Will Game of Thrones End?

Evidence For the Theory

Okay, that was a whole lot of theory, and it would mean that a lot of what we know right now is either wrong or at least off. But what sort of evidence is there that this will happen?

The Blackfyre Rebellion

The Blackfyre sigil

This theory was partially developed by looking at a rebellion from earlier in Westeros history. Show watchers and many book readers might not remember the Blackfyre rebellion, but it is mentioned heavily in the three Dunk and Egg novellas, recently collected into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The Rebellion happened about a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, but the way the theory has it, the end game of the series will mirror this rebellion.

A bastard born Targaryen and a true born Targaryen had a Civil War that caused a widespread destruction in Westeros. (In the Dunk and Egg stories everyone talks about the Blackfyre rebellion the way everyone talks about Robert’s Rebellion in Season 1 of GoT). The sigils of the two camps were the traditional Targaryen sigil, red dragon on black field, for the True Born and a black dragon on a white field for the Bastard Born. This mirrors the White and Red rose flags used in the War of the Roses, the decades long civil war in England that ended in the rise of the Tudor dynasty. Martin has said the War of the Roses inspired Game of Thrones, which we can see in a lot of instances. Maybe the War of the Roses directly impacts the ending, and we see it go down exactly like that on the show.

Jon’s Moral Stark Code Makes Him More Noble than Dany

Janos Slynt before his execution.

Let’s face it, we don’t want to have to chose between Jon and Dany’s sides. It’s like Captain America vs Iron Man. They’re both amazing, we love them both. But if this happens on GoT we’re going to have to chose a side and when it comes down to it, Jon has the better moral code.

In the pilot Ned Stark beheads a Night’s Watch deserter and tells his children, “the one who passes the sentence must swing the sword.” We see Robb, Jon, and even Theon adhering to this throughout the series. (Robb beheads Rickard Karstark, Theon beheads Rodrik Cassel, and Jon beheads Janos Slynt.)

Dany doesn’t have this moral code. We see Daario publicly execute someone for her, and she arbitrarily fed people to her dragons last season. So Jon has a code, one he rigidly adheres to, whereas Dany sometimes lets her emotions fuel her. That’s not a bad thing, it’s worked for her in the past. But she also feed some people to dragons, which is pretty messed up.

Madness Runs in the Targaryen Family

The Mad King, Daenerys’ father.

It is said the Gods flip a coin to decide whether a Targaryen is sane or insane. Chances are all the incest in the Targaryen line caused the Targaryens to pass down some degenerative mental illness that manifests as they get older.

We’ve met a very nice kindly Targaryen at the Night’s Watch. He passed away in Season 5, but we got to know Maester Aemon over the four and a half seasons he was on the show. Maester Aemon was heir to the throne, but he gave it up. He’s a pretty wise man; why would he have done this if he knew his younger brother was completely insane? He would have taken the throne himself if he thought his brother would do the things he did. It seems likely the disease developed slowly over time, until the madness took its toll.

Dany’s actions have been more erratic of late. She crucified a bunch of Masters of Meereen with out a trial, she publicly executed a man who killed a Master out of love of her rather than imprisoning him, she fed some Masters to her dragons. That’s cruel and unusual if ever we heard it. It is possible Dany is already going insane.

What do we really know about the White Walker’s motives?

The Night’s King before he turns Craster’s last son into a White Walker.

They take Craster’s babies to the Land of Always Winter and transform them into White Walkers. They need humans to make more Walkers, so they aren’t trying to wipe out humanity completely. They would die too. Martin has said we misunderstand the White Walkers, they have their own culture and language, and like Jon and the Night’s Watch are afraid of them at the moment, they could be afraid of the dragons and R’hllor. The White Walkers are just human like creatures and might be fighting for their own survival against the Lord of Light.

Could humans have violated some sort of ancient pact? We know that the First Men made a pact with the Children of the Forest after a long war with them. The end of the first Long Night might have been brought about because Azor Ahai and the White Walkers made peace and the Wall was the dividing line. It answers the question, “Why would Men have made a giant Ice Wall to keep an army of Ice people out?” If this Pact happened maybe the Walkers built the Wall themselves. Maybe they aren’t all that bad.

R’hllor is a Demon God

King Renly’s death by Shadow in Season 2.

Okay, an argument can be made that Melisandre is the bad egg and is using R’hllor incorrectly and that R’hllor comes off as evil because Melisandre is evil. But let’s look at what we’ve seen the Lord of Light do so far. He, or It, impregnated Melisandre with a murderous demon baby to be used for political assassinations, brought Berric Dondarrio back from the dead (and in the books did the same for Lady Stoneheart), and may have caused the deaths of Robb Stark and Joffrey Baratheon. And he had Melisandre sacrifice Stannis’s daughter.

Making all of this magic happen involved blood magic and sacrifice and the death of children with the goal of viciously slaying people. That sounds a whole lot like devil worship a-la-Rosemary’s Baby. Why are we on this god’s side again?

We also know a Priestess of R’hllor is showing up in Meereen in Season 6 so that likely means she will pronounce Dany the reincarnation of Azor Ahai. If she is (and Dany has the best case for being Azor Ahai), then she could be on her way to this horrific endgame.